April 11 & 12, 2009
Congratulations to Compass for winning the Plate in Tainan! It was truly the hardest tournament this team has ever encountered, and NOT because of the tough competition. Winning that trophy is one of the most unlikely things that has ever happened for us, even by Compass standards.

Our record was as follows:
Group Play (Sat):
1-0 win vs. Carnegies (goal by Ben) (FORFEITED by Compass for borrowing Scunners players)
0-2 loss vs. Black Star
0-1 loss vs. T3

Plate Round:
1-1 tie vs. Pacers (goal by Seb)
0-0 tie vs. JFC
1-0 win vs. Super Eagles (goal by Ben)
Plate Final: 1-0 win vs. Massive (goal by Laurent)

WHAT HAPPENED:
After losing four players within 24 hours before the tournament, Compass barely fielded a team on Saturday. At 11 p.m. Friday night, Terry managed to find 2 Morrison players, Daniel and Aaron. Without his help and those 2 guys (who played well) Compass would have shown up in Tainan with 8 players! The 7:56 a.m. Saturday bus only had seats for two (Robert & Giorgio), leaving Doug and the 2 Morrison guys to run across the street to another station and buy 8:30 a.m. tickets. When that bus arrived, they were informed that there was only 1 seat, sending them on a mad-dash to 2 more stations before jumping on a 8:50 a.m. bus.

The bus travelers arrived at the pitch just at kick-off vs. Canegies at 11:05 a.m. Since Compass started with the help of 4 Scunners, three of them quickly switched with the 3 late arrivals, leaving 1 Scunner and 10 Compass players on the pitch. Ben scored and Compass won the game, but Carnegies lodged a protest at using Scunners and Compass were forced to forfeit that game. During a debate between Seb and a Carnegies player about this, a Carnegies player probably had the proper response: "Don't complain! If you can't show up with a team, don't come to the tournament!" Unfortunately, that could summarize the weekend for Compass.

Compass were forced to play Saturday's remaining 3 very hot games with 10 guys in what turned out to be a humiliating, tiring day. Black Star won rather easily but the ultimate humiliation was getting beat in front of a screaming, cheering Tainan crowd by a scrub team called "T3" that included 2 girls and an one-armed forward (honestly). It was their first-ever victory. By that time, Robert could barely walk and Ben was hobbling on a bad ankle. The last Saturday game was the first of the Plate round, against Pacers. Compass was redeemed (slightly) against a decent Pacers side, as Seb scored a PK (once again redeeming himself). Compass held Pacers with 10 beat-up guys, including Robert moving into the goal and Austin playing field, until the last minutes when they scored.

At this point, the team had a serious debate about going home and skipping Sunday. Compass players were beat, injured and worn-out; Robert had to drop out, and Giorgio and Aaron could only play Saturday. Unexpectedly, Daniel agreed to stay in Tainan to help out and truly deserves thanks for this. Finally, it was decided to stick it out. That evening, the team enjoyed a great Chinese dinner with the Tubbies, followed by a raucous evening at Red Wolf Bar watching football with everyone. Most of the team got in at a decent hour, with one striking exception: Artem, aka "The Rasta Russian", walked into the hotel, ready to play, at 10 a.m. Sunday (!) after some all-night action at a Reggae party.

Compass received desperately-needed Sunday reinforcements from Laurent, Joel, Hiroki, Caleb and Gerry, bringing the numbers up to 12. Nevertheless, Compass just couldn't keep 11 guys on the field. In the next Plate Round game vs. JFC, the nasty lineswoman flagged Artem for a ridiculous foul that even the ref didn't see and he promptly gave him a red card! Even the JFC players were shocked. No warning, no yellow card--just a red. Needless to say, most of the refereeing really sucked. Compass survived that disaster but poor Artem had to sit out the next match vs. a rough (as expected) but victorious encounter with Super Eagles, who tried everything, including blatant diving in the box and double cleats-up tackles (with no red card in sight), to secure a win.

Shockingly, Compass managed to advance to the Plate final because almost every other Plate Round game was a 0-0 draw. Therefore, goals scored against Pacers and Eagles put Compass through against the Kaohsiung Massive, who were undefeated in the Plate Round. They seemed pretty confident, too: One of their "hot" players, a Gambian guy, ran onto the pitch, greeted Gerry with a smile and handshake, and said, "Thanks for letting me score, because that's what I'm about to do!" Needless to say, he did nothing of the sort. Compass dominated Massive completely and only missed scoring a second goal in the final seconds because of politeness, as follows:

Caleb: Look, I'm standing a couple meters in front of a completely open goal! I'll give it to Ben and let him score.

Ben: No, Caleb, I insist! You go ahead and score.

Caleb: Are you sure? Okay, we'll let's see, which foot shall I kick it wi...WHAM! (And the Massive keeper makes an amazing, desperate save.) :)

The Cup championship was Da-an vs. Tainan Phoenix, who won their second back-to-back tournament in a PK shoot-out. The honest truth is that Compass could have easily been in the final and beaten Phoenix, which didn't look that great (I thought Da-An actually looked better). However, given the state of our team, we can consider ourselves extremely lucky to come home with some hardware. (Tubbies went through into the Cup round but were knocked out.)

Saturday was one of the worst, most grinding, humiliating experiences that this team has collectively gone through. It should have never happened, and it is my hope that such a thing never happens again. Once again, to quote that Carnegies player: If we can't bring a team to a tournament, then we shouldn't go. And bringing a team to a tournament relies on commitment from each and every Compass player.